Improvement in hat-boxes



R. R. PERRY. Hat-Box No, 212,673. Patented Feb. 25,1879

v I I hmm mm a 1 HHH if INVENTORI RAFNER. WASHINGTON D C UNITED STATES PATENT OEEroE.

RICHARD R. FERRY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO CAROLINE M.

FERRY, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN HAT-BOXES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 212,673, dated February 25, 1879 application filed January 22, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, Brennan R. FERRY, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain Improvements in Hat-Boxes, or boxes wherein hats are packed for transportation, of which the following is a specification:

Heretofore boxes of various shapes-round, oval, square, octagonal, &c.--made from pasteboard or similar material, have been employed as receptacles for nested hats to be transported from place to place.

To preserve in some degree the form of the hats, and to prevent them from crushing and chafing each other, stays, so called, have been employed. These consist, usually, of pasteboard cylinders, one slipped over the crown of the bottom hat of the nest, and one slipped inside the crown of the topmost hat. Sub-stays, consisting of rin gs of pasteboard, have also been employed. These are made to encircle the crowns of the hats and prevent one hat from crowding into the next below.

It is found that the above-described appliances do not prevent the brims of the hats from chafing against the sides of the box, and from being bent or crushed out of shape when the box is left lying for a time upon its side. Moreover, the stays being made of hard pasteboard, their unyielding edges and surfaces cut into the substance of the hats and chafe them, to their evident injury.

My invention seeks to avoid these objections by fixing the stays, one at the bottom of the box and one in the lid or cover, so that when the hats are packed properly in the box they cannot and will not touch or chafe the sides of the same, whether the box be turned on its plans of the cover or lid and the box. Fig.

4 is a sectional perspective view of a sub-stay. Fig. 5 is a modification.

A represents a box, of paper or other suitable material, made round, oval, or of any convenient shape. B is a lid or cover, arranged to fit snugly on or in the same, as represented.

In or to the bottom of the box is secured a stay, 0, and in or to the lid is secured another stay, D, of a similar character. These stays are shown as made (of pasteboard or other suitable material) in the form of cylinders or conic frustums. Where the hats are packed with their crowns down, as in Fig. 1, the top stay, D, will generally be the smallest, andlprefer to cone it more than the lower stay.

It is not absolutely necessary that the stays be either conical or cylindrical. The internal stay especially may be in the form of a cross, as in Fig. 5, or in any form that will properly stay or steady the hat. I prefer, however, the form shown, especially in the case of soft hats.

E E arethe sub-stays, which may be simply rings of pasteboard or other suitable light material.

The stays and sub-stays are bound or covered, where they come in contact with the hats, with felt, cloth, or other soft and non-abrasive material, as shown at a. This substance may be simply glued or gummed to the stay, and it is most important that the edges of the stays be covered, as they are most likely to cause damage.

I prefer to fix the stays directly to the bottom and lid of the box by means of glue; but other means of attachment or methods of fixing them in place maybe employed. Indeed, it may in some cases be desirable to mount the stay on a plate or sheet large enough to extend across the box in two directions, as at b in Fig. 5, and fit this in the bottom or lid of the box, between the side walls. Such a construction would keep the stay in the center or axis of the box, and prevent lateral movement, whether actually attached to the bottom or lid or not, and that is the main point.

Various methods of constructing or forming the stays might be devised, and various ways of maintaining them centrally, or in the axis of the box when it is thrown upon its side,

may be employed, and I do not wish to confine myself to the precise construction shown.

I am aware that hat-boxes for inclosing a single hat have been constructed with a stay or support for the hat fixed in its bottom, and I make no claim to this; but

What I do claim is 1. As an improved article of manufacture, a shipping-box for hats having two stays, one

to enter the hat-crown and one to embrace or clasp the hat-crown, one arranged centrally in the box-cover, so that it cannot move laterally, and one arranged centrally in the bottom of the box, so that it cannot move laterally, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. As an improved article of manufacture, a shippin g-box for hats havin g a stay, D, at-

RICHARD R. FERRY.

Witnesses ARTHUR O. FRASER, HENRY GONNETT. 

